Posts Tagged ‘storage’

Regular patrons of Kickstarter and Indiegogo will know that personal cloud devices regularly pop up for crowdfunding. Having said that, there’s no need to take a chance and wait several months as StoAmigo have created a complete ecosystem that unifies network cloud, personal cloud and device storage. Don Baine finds out more from Richard Stiles, VP StoAmigo.

StoAmigo brings together storage into an “access anywhere” cloud from multiple sources and key to the ecosystem is StoAmigo’s TackApp which joins local device storage from PC, Mac or Android smartphone into the cloud. Accessing the StoAmigo cloud from the smartphone client app, Don is impressed by the speed and responsiveness of the system. Video and music can be streamed instantly, and as expected, all the data is encrypted.

All the software is free to download so there’s no risk in trying it out. For those wanting a dedicated storage device, StoAmigo’s CloudLocker provides an initial 278GB of NAS storage which can be expanded by adding additional USB storage. It’s priced at US$349 but there’s currently $150 off if you’re quick.

At CES 2014, Western Digital, one of the world’s leading storage solutions provider, presented an external hard drive that allows you to save everything AND access it anytime, anywhere.

Also known as the My Cloud, this new external hard drive by Western Digital is more than just an external hard drive. It is an external hard drive that allows you to save all your content and access it anywhere. Whether you’re on your home or on the road, you can access all of your data on your My Cloud from your PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone anytime you want to. With My Cloud, you can store anything — photos, documents, videos, music — in one secure place on your home network. What makes MyCloud different from other external hard drives available out there? With MyCloud, you don’t have to take it with you just so you can access it. You don’t even have to plug it in your gadget to access your files. My Cloud is like a mini computer; it has an operating system and a processor that you can simply plug into your router even without connecting to your computer. Through 3G, 4G, or WiFi connections, you can access all of your files 24/7 no matter how far you are from the external hard drive itself.

Using Western Digital’s My Cloud Mobile App and Desktop App, you can remotely access all of your contents from any device. Plus, it doesn’t matter whether you’re using a Mac or PC; no need to format your files! It just knows what you’re on, making it easier to use it especially when you’re using iOS, Android and Windows.

Western Digital’s My Cloud personal cloud storage comes in three different models — 2 TB, 3 TB, and 4TB. They also have the EX4, which is more suitable for professionals, which has a capacity 0TB-16TB. The EX4 also have advanced features and RAID 5 capabilities that will be perfect for group management. The EX4 comes in non-populated version — where you can build your own drives — and populated version, which comes in 8 TB, 12 TB and 16 TB. With the populated version, you can simply turn it on, not do anything with it and access your files remotely. It also comes in several advanced features, as well as advanced backup, energy-saving features, and advanced apps, to name a few.

As for the pricing, Western Digital’s 2 TB My Cloud is available at only $149, 3 TB at $179, and $219 for the 4 TB My Cloud. In addition, these external hard drives have USB expansion ports; should ran out of content, simply plug in a My Passport or My Book type of drive and expand the storage on the drive. The My Cloud EX4, on the other hand, starts at $349 for the non-populated version and up to $1149 for the 16 TB drives. Visit WD.com to learn more about the My Cloud and EX4 and its individual features.

Keeping data secure without having to load special drivers or programs offers a lot of appeal. RocStor builds ruggedized drive enclosures with built in encryption that mount just like a regular portable drive. Using access cards or a hardware token, the drive is built so that tampering will be immediately obvious. The drives are fully bootable in both Apple OSX and in Windows 7 and 8. It is particularly useful for financial workers, doctors, lawyers and others with high value data. Originally designed for US Government applications, this USA manufactured product begins at $250 for a 1TB drive. Firewire and USB interfaces are available. TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey, SDRNews and Scott Ertz, F5 Live: Refreshing Technology .

Why upload and download to the cloud when you can create a personal cloud for data anywhere ?

Polkast is a new P2P approach to file access that you control. Your files are stored on systems that you control, and it doesn’t matter where the files are stored. With Polkast, you get anytime access to all of your files from any of your computers or mobile devices.

And, on your local network, files transfer at 10x the speed of a traditional upload/download from an external cloud service. And Polkast indexes and enables you to search for files from your mobile device- then pull just the one you need.

The common SD memory card has been around for a number of years: conveniently sized storage, plenty of capacity. Unfortunately, familiarity breeds ignorance, and a lot of consumers end up with the wrong product for their device. Alisa Hicks of the SD Association points out that many product performance issues with respect to SD cards could be solved simply by reading the equipment manual and then making an informed buying decision, instead of grabbing the latest bargain-bin price buster and pushing it into the slot.

SD memory cards come in a variety of speed classes and three different physical sizes: SD, miniSD, and microSD. The SD Association has tutorial videos and consumer information on their site, to help you get the right product for your device.

Just one day to go ! As a part of our Tech Podcast Network coverage of CES 2011, we are featuring a daily countdown of interviews, activities, tech zones, conference tracks and keynotes that will be included in our live coverage.

The Wireless Conference Track and the Storage Techzone fill out the interview discussion for today.